... to ask how you learned to like exercise

[lookatallthosechickens]

Or at least not hate it with a fiery passion?

Today I was out walking and found myself picking my way down a medium-steep rocky path like a little old lady - I felt totally off balance and scared of hurting myself. It's like I've lost all my youthful agility - and I'm only 42!

I don't care about exercise to look better - I'm fine with my weight and figure. I just don't want to end up like my mother, needing a stick to walk anywhere and with all sorts of malfunctioning joints and tendons keeping me indoors by the age of 65.

My main blockers are a very low tolerance for pain (like normal exercise pain from lactic acid in your muscles), a mild sense of panic when I feel short of breath from exertion, and it's just so BORING.

So how did you make yourself like exercise enough to actually go out and do it? Any ideas for exercise (especially anything that isn't running, weights, or swimming)? I currently walk about 30 mins to an hour a day so it needs to be more intense than that to improve my endurance and agility.

Get walking poles to combat that fear of tripping or falling. I use mine all the time and they make a huge difference

Would you enjoy martial arts or climbing or something a bit out of the box?

I was always the unsporty kid, hated how exertion felt, hated everything about PE.
overcoming those negative associations has been the most important part of gradually living exercise.
When I have to put effort into something, I still fear it on some level, but I lean into the feeling - try to enjoy it, appreciate it, feel it rather than shy away from it.
I can now push myself and do both cardio and weights; I enjoy the effort my body is capable of, I enjoy pushing myself and learning skills that are physical rather than mental.

This is going to sound really weird, but the beginning of that shift was when I put effort into not hating something physical that I found a chore (in mycase, weirdly, tying shoelaces). I slowed it all down, breathed through it and relaxed...now i don't remember why I found it so irritating in the first place!

By finding exercised that I liked. Walking and swimming, in my case.

I try to frame it as a form of self care. It's a way of looking after yourself and helps to keep you healthy. I view it as "me time" so go to the gym and get on the bike or the cross trainer, put a podcast on my headphones to listen to and the time goes quickly. Yoga helps me feel more connected and much calmer. I often can't be bothered but I never ever regret exercising after I've done it. If you don't like the feeling when you're doing it, learn to love the feeling after you've finished!

I wanted to like it. I'm like a little kid & wanted to see what my body could do. It was so hard to build stamina or to learn to swim, I'm proud of those things, wanted to keep those skills. I wanted to keep mobility & agility, not lose them due to age.

I am uncoordinated, slow & weak. So social sport tends to be depressing but I quite enjoy solo activity.

Habit helps a lot. Now middle-aged, I lose appetite if I don't exercise, too, so I need to exercise every day to be able to eat much.

You like any games? Badminton maybe? Table tennis is surprisingly energetic if you play someone who is good!

I'm probably not qualified to answer this, I don't love exercise. I like walking, yoga and I'm someone who rushes about a bit.

I am with the people who recommend hiit. As far as I can make out it's for people - like me - who find exercise boring So far I only do 20 minutes twice a week (followed by 10 minutes stretching, v important), but I'm planning to build up to 3 times a week. I do Joe Wicks videos on YouTube, he has loads of 20 minute hiit ones and a ten minute 'cool down' stretching one. I think he's a really nice way about him and though it's tough it's only 20 minutes. You just get through it so quickly and then you're done. I'm no expert but from the little I've read up on about hiit, three 20 minute sessions a week is enough in terms of proper workout. On top of your walks you should be fine.

Thanks everyone- I was really hoping to find a magic answer but it looks like it really is just find the thing you hate the least and make a habit of it. I really wish I could get into swimming- I LOVE swimming in the sea in a hot climate but I hate the smell of chlorine and the feeling of peeling off a cold wet swimsuit in a changing room shudder

I tried two different personal trainers a few years ago thinking that being accountable to someone would help but they were both very one-size-fits all, didn’t listen to my preferences or goals at all ( kept saying how great I would look- I already look great! Or good enough anyway!) and one of them didn’t understand what I meant when I said I wanted to be more agile- like he didn’t know the word, had never heard it before 😹

If anyone knows a good PT with a brain in Leeds let me know!

@lookatallthosechickens

I should add that my mother doesn't have any chronic health issues that I know of other than being slightly fat - it's purely a lifetime of no physical activity that's led her to where she is and while I'm slightly more active than her, I feel like I'm heading down the same path.

It is exactly this concern that has got me back into my trainers.

My DGM is crippled and in a nursing home and now also suffering dementia.

My DM is overweight with hypertension and high cholesterol. Given that her lifestyle could well contribute to her developing dementia to go along with her physical deterioration I, heading to mid 40’s, don’t want to find myself 10 years down the line wishing I’d acted when I was younger.

If you love swimming in the sea, give outdoor swimming a try. You still have to peel a costume or wetsuit off, but theres no chlorine, it can be incredibly beautiful being at lake level (watching the rain hit the surface from underneath is something I love), and there are so many supportive people. No changing rooms currently and I've found it very liberating just pulling my cossie off under a changing poncho in a field then driving home with my hair in a towel

Something fun, and not too strenuous

Gentle yoga, badminton

I love music and found a dance based class to decent music. I started running in lock down as classes stopped and was surprised to find at the age of 45 I actually didn’t hate it, I have an amazing play list of rock and dance music and go off into my own world. I treat it as a prescription for my anxiety and asthma. I’m overweight and hate my body but proud of what I can do with it. For me music is essential, the key to sticking at exercise is to find what makes you feel good.

It's definitely worth trying a range of exercise - I tried running every morning for three months, and it hurt just as much at the beginning as the end (and I was a slender 20yo then). However I do enjoy cycling, and you can put in as much effort as you want. Running with any speed simply hurt (for me), but cycling fast and pushing myself feels good.

Another thing which helps me is including it in my everyday life - I'd cycle to and from work anyway, so I often come home by a longer route, but the extra time is all spent cycling, not getting to and from the gym etc.

It really is about finding something you like or get a positive feeling about.

I do a combination of HIIT and running. HIIT changes every few weeks which keeps it interesting. I’m not a natural runner and struggle with it despite being quite experienced (half/full marathons under my belt) but I love the sense of calmness I get from being outside and left to my own thoughts.

Once you find your thing, and it may take sometime for something to become your thing as I had for running at the start, but once you do, you will get some satisfaction from it.

Good Bluetooth headphones, good dance music and just concentrate of your end goals, you are all ready better than most for just stepping foot in the gym.

I started lifting weights and loved it.

You have to find an exercise you love. I don't mean trying it once or twice and deciding you don't like it but try different instructors. I used to go to Zumba and not all classes are equal. I tried several before finding one that I really enjoyed. I moved on from Zumba to a dancefit class with more complex choreography which I now love.
A previous poster mentioned popsugar. I tried that for the first time after seeing it mentioned here a few days ago. I'll carry on with this until my normal classes resume.

I hated it at school, I hated it in my 20s and I hate it now. Same goes for playing sport. Result, I don't do any and am perfectly content.

lookatallthosechickens

Wild swimming is amazing. There are groups up and down the country on facebook. This has seen me through COVID!

You need to find something you LOVE doing. For me, it was riding and badminton. I loved both with a passion, especially when I was playing someone better than me who made me run round like a fool. Brilliant!

I didn’t exercise for a long long time due to illness but TBH even before that I never liked it - very sedentary parents too so never learned the habit. I was swimming, doing yoga and using the gym for about a year before lockdown. Not a huge amount due to health stuff but I love it and it doesn’t feel like a chore. I was really unwell at the start of lockdown but now I’ve learned to love exercising at home which I never thought possible - I feel fitter than I have in years, long way to go though. And I’m still not the kind of person who loves to go for long walks - definitely need to find something that works for the individual!

What helped was not expecting too much of myself. Keeping it short, easy and accessible to start so I didn’t get put off. If I’m doing a YouTube video that I have to keep stopping it’s just going to make me feel bad about what I can’t do. It’s better to do even five minutes a day to start than attempt a few days of something that’s too long/tough, get exhausted and sore and give up, especially if you are really sensitive to pain. It’s fine to start small especially while you’re trying different things.

The trainer or whoever is doing the video needs to be right as well - if you don’t gel with them (even if it’s only watching a video and not an actual face to face thing) - I love davina mcall so I used her pregnancy workout loads whereas I find joe wicks a bit annoying but I know there are plenty of people who’d find the opposite :o at the gym I photographed the overall timetable so I knew which teacher was on when.

I started walking on a gym treadmill when 6st overweight and pushing 50 and determined I wasn't going to follow my extremely sedentary mother into heart disease and diabetes. Walking turned into faster walking until I started jogging a minute, then 10mins wheezing, then repeat... gradually the weight went (low cal diet) jogging got longer and the wheezing shorter and inside a year from my first 5k I ran a half marathon.

I have said to countless people that I was the most unlikely runner ever, always hated it at school and then discovered I loved it. You just have to keep going until your fitness increases to cope and suddenly you can.

I will only do exercise I love. I've come to terms with the fact that I find running boring as hell but I love swimming. My self-discipline isn't the strongest but I joined a group of outdoor women swimmers during lockdown and its bloody amazing.

I found stuff I enjoyed and was capable of doing, like swimming. If I'm in the gym I take my iPod because having decent music to listen to motivates me.

Try les mills body combat It’s addictive and a great way of stress busting.